Public attitudes toward human organ donation.

A growing proportion of the public believe that organ transplants are successful and that organ donation is a way of helping someone else. Potential donors would prefer a legally recognized donor card that cannot be countermanded by the next of kin. Major reasons for not signing an organ donor card are hastiness of organ removal, mutilation, fatalism or superstition, religion, age, and "I just never thought of it." Respondents recommended a more aggressive approach by hospital professionals seeking consent for donations and continuing publicity about the need for organs.